Michael Phelps, Five-Time Olympian

Considering Olympic Games are held four years apart, competing in the Olympics fives times requires an athlete to be among the best in the world for their entire young adulthood, and then some.

In the case of Michael Phelps, it started slightly earlier than that, at age 15, when he made the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, and hasn’t yet stopped. His prime has continued all the way though the Bling Era, the Sarah Palin Moment, the life and death of Grantland, all five seasons of Breaking Bad and has reached, at long last, the 2016 Olympics. He even outlasted Jared Fogle as a Subway spokesman.

Phelps, 30, will be the first American to compete in five Olympics, and will likely add to his record 22 Olympic medals.

He accomplished this by winning the 200-meter butterfly at the U.S. Olympic trials Wednesday in Omaha. His time of 1:54.84 will make him the favorite in that race next month in Rio.

Phelps finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly as a 15-year-old at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia.